Skyscraper-sized Waves Recorded Beneath the Ocean

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For the first time, scientist have recorded an enormous wave the size of a skyscraper breaking at a key location at the bottom of the South Pacific Ocean. (Photo : Tom Peacock, MIT | Wide Eye Productions)


For the first time, scientists have recorded an enormous wave the size of a skyscraper breaking at a key location at the bottom of the South Pacific Ocean.


Researchers from the University of Washington recorded the 800 foot wave breaking at a key bottleneck for ocean circulation where water of different density collides. Such massive underwater waves play a crucial role in long-term climate cycles, transporting heat, carbon, and nutrients around the world. Where and how these waves break is important to global climate as well as ocean circulation, the researchers said.

"Climate models are really sensitive not only to how much turbulence there is in the deep ocean, but to where it is," said lead author Matthew Alford, an oceanographer in the UW Applied Physics Laboratory. "The primary importance of understanding deep-ocean turbulence is to get the climate models right on long timescales."

Alford led an expedition to the Samoan Passage, a narrow channel in the South Pacific Ocean that funnels water flowing from Antarctica. There, dense water around Antarctica sinks deep into the Pacific, eventually surging through a 25-mile gap in the submarine landscape northeast of Samoa.

"Basically the entire South Pacific flow is blocked by this huge submarine ridge," Alford said. "The amount of water that's trying to get northward through this gap is just tremendous -- 6 million cubic meters of water per second, or about 35 Amazon Rivers."


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http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/3905/20130910/skyscraper-sized-waves-recorded-beneath-ocean.htm